Trailer park maintenance man arrested for sexually molesting children

56-year-old man worked for Cactus Rentals for eight years after previous convictions

By Dan Schwartz The Daily Times

Updated:
04/21/2014 08:08:09 PM MDT

Billy Carter (Courtesy of San Juan County Adult Detention Center)

FARMINGTON — A registered sex offender who maintained five trailer parks in Bloomfield, Aztec, Kirtland and Farmington has been arrested on charges of sexually molesting children.

Billy Carter, 56, was arrested on Friday and is being held in the San Juan County Adult Detention Center. His bail was set at $200,000.

Bloomfield police arrested the Farmington resident for sexually molesting children, according to his arrest warrant affidavit. Seven minors — one a boy — were identified as victims in the report.

Carter has been arrested before. In 2005 he pleaded guilty to sexually penetrating a child younger than 13, pleaded no contest to bribing a witness, and faced two charges of sexually penetrating a child 13-years-old or younger and sexually contacting a child younger than 13, according to court records. And nine years earlier, he pleaded no contest to possession and intention of distributing methamphetamine.

For eight years he was a maintenance worker for Cactus Rentals, the company that owns the five trailer parks, said Jamie Pierce, who manages Bloomfield's Charro Mobile Home Parks, one of those parks. Pierce's daughter was among the victims listed in the affidavit

John Martin owns the five trailer parks, she said.

"John's the one who paid for his lawyer last time (Carter) got in trouble for this stuff," she said.

Pierce provided The Daily Times Martin's phone number but, when called, a man answered who said that was his name but he would not confirm he is the owner. However, the man said business owners should have access to adequate records on the backgrounds of potential employees.

Carter was in jail in 2004 and later bonded out, according to detention center documents. The documents do not identify who posted his bond, but Pierce said it was Martin.

In 2005, after he was booked on additional charges, the detention center released him to the New Mexico State Department of Corrections, according to detention center documents.

"Watch your kids," Pierce said, "because if he gets bailed out he's coming back to work."

The affidavit describes Carter's advances, sometimes in lurid detail.

Carter bought Pierce's daughter and another underage girl who was her friend cell phones, candy, pajamas and a teddy bear. He also bought the young girls a big bunny and a telescope and made them whistles.

On car rides around Farmington lake, to the Bloomfield Dam and to his home to let his dogs out, he would squeeze the thighs of the girls sitting on his lap, pulling them closer as they steered and he pressed the pedals.

One of the girls told police that every time she drove with Carter she felt his "bone" push against her behind.

Other times he would photograph underage girls in his home wearing bikinis, telling them he needed the photos to sketch them later.

One of the girls told Bloomfield police about Carter touching her "cha cha," saying she was scared to speak because he was often at their home until midnight pretending to fix their floor.

The girl told police that Carter told her anything he did to her in his truck "is nothing she needs to tell anyone about."

Upon prompting, other underage girls told Bloomfield police that Carter groped their vaginas.

Pierce was also concerned about reporting Carter because she said her boss, Martin, told her to kick out anyone living in the park who complained about Carter.

Bloomfield Police Chief Mike Kovacs said he's glad Carter has been caught, but added that the state doesn't have sufficient laws regulating registered sex offenders.